These are questions we all ask ourselves, but it's hard to get past conjecture or gut feeling to find any definitive answers. Now, in this groundbreaking book, David Hamilton looks at hard scientific evidence to bring us closer to understanding the balance between the forces of destiny and the power of free will.

Exploring the new scientific research into presentiment - how the mind and nervous system are able to perceive events ahead of time - David examines the origins and nature of consciousness and how the mind influences the experiences of our lives. Drawing on research in such diverse fields as quantum physics, epigenetics, solar cycles, astrology, and even reports of life after death, David shows that there appears to be an element of predetermination in life, but also suggests that there is much opportunity for us to take control of our own destiny, allowing us to shape our lives and our world with powerful results.

In many ways, our genome is similar to the genomes of animals. Clearly we mostly use visual cues to get around, but it is likely that we have a latent ability to use the Earth’s geomagnetic field too. It’s known as magnetoreception.

In an attempt to test it, Dr. Robin Baker of Manchester University in the UK blindfolded some students and drove them up to 30 miles (48km) away from the university. Then he asked them to estimate the direction of the university. They scored pretty well. But when he removed their blindfolds, they became disoriented.

He then did a similar experiment with groups of schoolchildren. One group had bar magnets attached to their heads that would swamp out the Earth’s geomagnetic field and the other group had magnetized pieces of metal attached to their heads. When they were asked to indicate north, the children who had the magnetized pieces of metal on their heads performed much better than the group with the magnets on.

While he was head of the Neuroscience Laboratory at Laurentien University in Ontario, Canada, neuroscientist Michael Persinger also showed that the human brain was sensitive to magnetic fields. In several studies he was able to induce mystical experiences in people by applying a magnetic field to the temporal lobes of the brain.

He also proposed that wobbles of the Earth’s geomagnetic field (which can be caused by solar or lunar activity) could also bring about this effect.

Other research, at the University of St. Petersburg in Russia, has shown that geomagnetic storms can affect EEG patterns in the brain, particularly in the frontal and central areas of the brain.

Some research has even found links between geomagnetic storms and depression. For example, Dr. Ronald Kay, a consultant psychiatrist at the Westbank Clinic in Falkirk, Scotland (close to where I was born), studied the records of patients admitted to the Lothian Hospital in Scotland for depression between 1976 and 1986 and compared them with records of geomagnetic storms.13 He found a stunning correlation. When he looked at hospital admissions during the first, second, and third week after a geomagnetic storm he found that there was a 9 percent increase in male admissions for depressed-phase manic-depressive illness (bipolar disorder) in the first week, a 36 percent increase in the second week, and an 8 percent increase after the third; there were no relationships in periods when there had been no magnetic storms.

In 2006, Michael Berk, a psychiatry professor at the University of Melbourne, also found a correlation between geomagnetic storms and mental health. While examining the suicide statistics for Australia between 1968 and 2002 (68,172 suicides; 51,845 men and 16,327 women) and comparing them with the time of geomagnetic storms, he found that suicides increased significantly in women during concurrent periods of geomagnetic storms.

Both these pieces of research are suggestive of the sensitivity of vulnerable people to geomagnetic activity. And since that activity is part of a cosmic cycle, it represents an important force of destiny for some people.

The increase in depression has now been linked with melatonin levels, which also have a role in chronobiology. Unsurprisingly, some researchers have discovered that geomagnetic storms can impact the melatonin rhythm, which is suggestive of an effect on the CLOCK gene.

The effects of magnetic storms have even found their way into the world of finance. In a study conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta in 2003, it was found that in the week after high geomagnetic storm activity there was a downturn on stock returns.

Can we say that the financial crises that began in 2008 are totally independent of solar (or other cosmic) activity? I’m not so sure we can, even if it sounds unlikely, especially as they were a result of human activity and we are not exactly independent of nature’s cycles. The actual association is probably complex and subtle, but solar activity does affect some human biology and behavior.

Geomagnetic Storms and the Heart

Geomagnetic storms have also been shown to affect the heart and blood pressure.16 Research has shown that blood pressure increases along with geomagnetic storm intensity.

In 2001 a team of scientists also found that the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) of ischaemic heart patients was significantly altered during a geomagnetic storm. The ESR rate is the speed at which red blood cells fall to the bottom of a test tube. When there is inflammation, blood proteins clump together and make the blood ‘heavier’ and so the cells fall to the bottom more quickly. So the research was indicative of increased inflammation, which is an indicator of stress in the cardiovascular system, on account of geomagnetic storm activity. Fortunately, the scientists found that they could easily protect patients with high sensitivity from the storms by creating a shielding chamber.

Concerned about the possible angina-causing effects of geomagnetic storms, other scientists tested the anti-inflammatory effects of aspirin and found that it decreased the negative effects of the storms because it counteracted inflammation and so thinned the blood.

Extra-Sensitive Perception

As the body of research showing how we’re affected by geomagnetic storms is increasing, it has become clear that some people are more sensitive than others, which isn’t surprising.

Researchers have labelled the sensitive people ‘aurora disturbance sensitive people’ (ADSP).17 For these people, the effect of a geomagnetic storm might not be unlike the effect of caffeine in coffee, inclining them toward stress or agitation.

The work on geomagnetic storms has also shone a little light upon the phenomenon of geopathic stress. The term derives from the Greek for ‘disease of the Earth’ and refers to how sensitive people fall ill in certain geographical regions. Some people are believed to fall ill in certain properties. It is actually considered the norm in some European countries to have a geopathic stress survey done before buying a property.

The reason for geopathic stress in certain regions might be that the Earth’s geomagnetic field isn’t uniform all over the planet. As mentioned earlier, a geomagnetic contour map resembles a classic contour map showing the heights and depths of hills and valleys. It is most intense at the poles but is also distorted in many locations by the presence of underground rock formations, mineral concentrations, volcanic activity, and underground water.

If a person is sensitive to the Earth’s geomagnetic field, or at least some systems of the body pick it out from the background of technologically created fields, then highs or lows in the field might be responsible for them feeling a little off-colour in some places.

Changes in the geomagnetic field don’t always produce negative effects, of course. It is just that these have been most studied. For most people there will be few or no observable effects. But given that we have evolved within the background of cosmic solar activity, it would be understandable if some people were found to be more sensitive, perhaps having some genetic polymorphism that could increase their sensitivity.

For some people solar activity might even produce mystical and enlightening experiences. As noted earlier, Michael Persinger found that some people had mystical experiences when he stimulated their brain with magnetic fields similar to the Earth’s during a geomagnetic storm. Perhaps mystical experiences are ‘written in the stars’ for some people, just as depression or high blood pressure could be written for others, dependent on each person’s unique biology, or even chronotype.

Whatever the case may be, there is no question that cosmic cycles affect us. And they are regular and therefore predictable, so it’s no surprise that events in life tend to be cyclic too. Have you ever noticed that some events in your life have repeated themselves? It’s the same in the world at large, where we see political swings back and forth, cyclic fashion trends, and even the rise and fall of civilizations. In my opinion this phenomenon is in some way linked to the cyclic nature of the cosmos in that we are ‘programmed’ to do things cyclically.

So, life might be mapped out to an extent. Rather than being completely independent of, and masters of, nature, we are in fact led by nature, even though we don’t notice this most of the time.

I like the metaphor of a small rowing boat on a wide river. We can think of free will as using our oars to paddle to where we want to go, but there is a cosmic current on the metaphorical river. We tend to pay it no heed because we seem to have the freedom to choose where we want to go. But regardless of our choices, we do follow the current.